The Legislation

On 1st October 2006 the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, came into force. All existing fire legislation was repealed including the Fire Precautions Act 1971, Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations 1997/99 and the Management of Health & Safety in the Workplace Regulations 1999.

Fire certificates are no longer issued and have been replaced with the requirement for a Fire Risk Assessment. Employers are now solely responsible for fire safety within their workplaces.

If you are: -

responsible for business premises

an employer

self-employed with business premises

a charity or voluntary organisation

a contractor with a degree of control over any premises

The new law affects you!

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, states the following : -

The responsible person must make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to which relevant persons are exposed for the purpose of identifying the general fire precautions he needs to take to comply with the requirements and prohibitions imposed on him by or under this Order

Although best practice states that it would be better if the Competent Person is an employee, many small and medium sized businesses do not have the resources in time or money to have an employee committed full time to this work. A company may therefore employ third party assistance to complete the Fire Risk Assessment.